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SCHOOL PROFILEGilman Elementary School

Box 188Gilman, Wisconsin 54433

Type of School: *Elementary (PreK-5)Location: *Gilman: Located in rural northwestern WisconsinSize: *Typically 3 classes at each grade level

*Approximately 300 students*Student-teacher ratios are typically 1-15

Student Population: *Majority of students are Caucasian* Includes students with cognitive, learning, emotional and

physical disabilitiesPrincipal: *Former Principal: Al Arnold (1990-1999)

*Current Principal: Paul Schley (October 1999-Present)Teachers: *Majority of the teachers have lived in the Gilman area all of

their lives* Most of the teachers have many years of teaching experienceat Gilman Elementary

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Summary of Classrooms, Teachers, and Students Involved in the Research StudyGilman Elementary- Gilman, Wisconsin

Spring Semester, 1999:

Grade: ThirdTeacher: Brenda ThompsonTarget Students: Terri, Student with moderate/severe CD

Grade: KindergartenTeachers: Sandy Gunderson

Joan ChwalaMichelle Fastbender

Target Students: Susie, student with ADHD; Hal and Danny, students withacademic problems

1999-2000 Academic Year:

Grade: KindergartenTeachers: Sandy Gunderson

Joan ChwalaTarget Students: Joey, student with ADD; Danny, student with academic

problemsFiona, Katie and Kelsey, students with behavior problems

Grade: FirstTeachers: Kim TrawickiTarget Students: Debbie, student with

Grade: ThirdTeacher: Brenda ThompsonTarget Students: Terri, Student with moderate/severe CD

Fall, 2000:

Grade: KindergartenTeachers: Sandy Gunderson

Joan ChwalaTarget Students: Whole class observation

Grade: FirstTeachers: Kim TrawickiTarget Students: Whole class observation

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Grade: SecondTeachers: Bob Mechelke – Special EducatorTarget Students: Whole class observation

Grade: SecondTeachers: Lois Schufeld

Mrs. Beadle – Guidance CounselorTarget Students: Whole class observation

Researchers who observed and recorded data

Paula DeHart Spring, 1999 – Fall, 2000Kim Beloin Spring 1999JoAnne Suomi Spring, 1999

People Interviewed 2-4-00 Paul Schley School Principal Interview by: DeHart

3- 3-00 Kim Trawicki First Grade Teacher Interview by: DeHart

3- 3-00 Joan Chwala Kindergarten Teacher Interview by: DeHart

3-22-00 Sandy Gunderson Kindergarten Teacher Interview by: DeHart

3-22-00 Bob Mechelke Special Educator Interview by: DeHart

4-20-00 Shelly Keepers Parent Interview by: DeHart

11-2-00 Mrs. Siemek Parent Interview by: DeHart

11-2-00 Kelly Emstrom Parent Interview by: DeHart

11-2-00 Denise Korenuk Parent Interview by: DeHart

11-2-00 Lisa Rucks Parent Interview by: DeHart

Curriculum:

Gilman Reading Model for reading instructionIntegrated Thematic Units for all instruction in the Kindergarten classrooms

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EMPOWER CITIZENS IN A DEMOCRACY:• An Elementary Site-based Council includes community members, parents andstudents.• Teaching staff researched and created the Gilman Reading Instruction Model which isimplemented school-wide.

INCLUDE ALL:• All students with disabilities are included full-time in general education.• Teachers certified in special education serve as classroom teachers, team teachers, andconsultants.• Students with moderate mental retardation, physical disabilities and mild disabilitiesarea all included. •Currently Gilman does not have any students with severe disabilities residing in thedistrict.

TEACH & ADAPT FOR DIVERSITY:• Appropriate accommodations for students with and without disabilities are made byclassroom teachers and consulting specialists as needed.• No specialized or different curricula are used for students with disabilities. Allstudents participate in the general education curriculum with adaptations andmodifications.• All students receive their literacy instruction at their instructional level. Groups arefluid and flexible as the instructional needs of children change.• The Gilman Reading Instruction Model was developed by the teaching staff and isimplemented school-wide. The Model teaches every child at his/her instructional leveland instructional rate.

BUILD COMMUNITY & SUPPORT LEARNING:• Community members, high school students, and specialists all work with classroomteachers and students to support learning.• Commitment to lower class sizes supports all learners.• Special education staff work with all students, not just students with disabilities.

PARTNERING:• The school provides a very comprehensive community education program in theevenings.• A parent coordinator is employed through the school.• A Parent Resource Center has been developed and is used by parents in thecommunity.

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IntroductionGilman Elementary School is a rural school with a homogeneous population of studentswith and without disabilities. Gilman Elementary School was chosen as a research sitebecause the school community exemplifies the five principles of Whole Schooling in itsown unique yet effective way. This school profile will provide specific examplesillustrating how the Whole Schooling Principles are implemented across age, grade andability levels.

Principle 1: EMPOWER CITIZENS IN A DEMOCRACYThe first principle of Whole Schooling is to help students to function as effective citizensin a democracy. Because of the important role schools play in teaching essentialparticipatory skills and in perpetuating democratic ideals, Gilman Elementary School wasexamined for its nurturance of democratic decision-making. The examples below aretaken mainly from interviews and observations over a two-year period of time. Whenlooking at the many examples, several main themes or findings emerged.

Finding 1: Committed respected school leaders support the schoolcommunity in democratic decision-making.Paul Schley is the principal at Gilman Elementary School and started his tenure there inthe fall of 1999, which was the first fall of the Whole Schooling Research project.Previous to becoming the elementary school principal at Gilman, he had been a highschool agriculture teacher. It was clear from teacher and parent interviews that Mr.Schley’s administrative style was different from that of the previous principal and thatthere were mixed feelings about how this was impacting the school. Some teachersvoiced strong support for Mr. Schley’s leadership as one teacher expressed when shesaid, “I’m very happy with our principal, I think he has done a good job. He is a fairperson, he listens to everyone and then makes a decision.” Other teachers expressed theopinion that Mr. Schley had some strong leadership capabilities, but was not familiarwith the workings of an elementary school. On this topic one teacher said, “I would likefor him to spend more time in our classroom, to see what we do. His background isjunior high and his role was to enforce discipline. He has come out and told us that hehas not had the experience at the elementary school.” Another teacher said, “I think he isreally trying to understand SAGE and Whole Schooling. Is he failing as a leader? No.He just needs experience. He really prefers middle school and high school.”

As far as Mr. Schley’s support for democratic decision-making in the school, one areawhere Gilman teachers clearly felt they had decision-making power was related tocurriculum decisions. Evidence of this came through teacher interviews as the followingcomment illustrates: “We have the leeway of how we want to teach to the standards andthe [district] curriculum. We can decide how to teach and what resources to use.”Another teacher said, “I think teachers have pretty decent input on curriculum. We’vebeen supported by administration so far.” Evidence of the power Gilman teachers hadover curriculum was also demonstrated in the Gilman Reading Model. The GilmanReading Model was a school-wide reading program that had been entirely researched andcreated by the school staff. The reading model was set up in such a way as to include allstudents, provide instruction at the appropriate developmental level for all students and

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provide access to the same curricular content to all students. While the reading model hadbeen developed under the leadership of the previous principal, Mr. Schley was supportingits continued implementation in the school pending research and testing results.

Gilman Elementary School also has a site-based council that helps with decision-makingin the school. The site-based council includes a board member, one administrator, acommunity education director, three classroom teachers, one special teacher (the arts),three parents and one community member. The site-based council meets once a monthand addresses issues related to curriculum, programs and staffing. The role of the site-based council was described as “advisory.” Items are brought to the site-based councilfor discussion and then final decisions are made by the administration. As was discussedpreviously, most curriculum decisions were made by teachers, but any fiscal decisionswere made by administrators. As one teacher stated, “If it is money matters, we don’tmake the decision.” There was some disagreement amongst teachers about whether thedecision-making power of the site-based council had changed, one teacher said, “Myunderstanding it that it was always advisory,” another teacher said, “The role of the site-based council has changed recently. Now they just make a recommendation, no decisionis final.”

The area of democratic decision-making is one that Gilman Elementary Schooladministration and staff are encouraged to explore and discuss further. When importantdecisions are taken out of the hands of teachers, the result can be cynicism and negativefeelings about the working environment. This comes through in one teachers commentabout Mr. Schley’s leadership, “His leadership is the old school of top going down. Hesays why should I have the input of everyone when I can just make the decision.” Aspart of an examination of democratic decision-making, Gilman administrators and staffmay want to invite the voices of parents. In one interview, a parent expressed frustrationwith the site-based council when she said, “I go to the site-based management meetingsand the principal comes for five minutes. I know they don’t want Grandparent’s Day butthey really want athletics. I wish academics were stressed more than athletics. Withdecreased enrollment, the first things that are cut are special needs teachers rather thanother things.” The risk of excluding teachers and parents from making importantdecisions is the lack of support they may then give to initiatives that are instituted bydistrict administrators, even those that might be good for children.

Finding 2: Students are involved in leadership roles and decision-making.Since the teaching of democratic skills and principles is such an important function ofschools, all of the schools in this study were examined for the ways in which theyencourage students to take on leadership roles and make decisions in the school andclassroom. In Gilman Elementary School, student involvement in leadership anddecision-making took two forms. The first type of leadership activity observed was thatof students serving as teachers. In classrooms where students were observed acting asteachers, the teacher either stated or modeled a belief that students could gain a great dealfrom teaching and being taught by their peers. The following example illustrates howstudents took on teaching roles at Gilman Elementary:

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Mr. N. said, “We are going to do Word Wall now. Four of you may go upand pick out your pointers.” Three of the students went up to the frontboard and took a pointer that was hanging on magnet hooks on the frontboard. The pointers looked like jester’s sticks and had cartoon characters’heads on them like Tweetie Bird and Daffy Duck. Mr. N. called on afemale student and she went to the Word Wall, pointed to each word andread, “Are, again, black, boy, best, bug, car, city, etc.

Students in this classroom and others often took on the role of teacher, especially duringreading instruction. Taking on the role of teacher helped Gilman students to developspeaking and leadership skills and encouraged them to be actively involved in classroominteractions.

The second area where Gilman Elementary students got involved in decision-making andleadership was when they had the opportunity to choose instructional and other specialactivities in which to participate. Students as young as kindergartners were observedmaking decisions about how they wanted to spend their “Free Choice” time. In GilmanElementary, kindergarten students were routinely given time during the school day tochoose activities and given a variety of high-interest activities from which to choose.Some examples of activities from which students could choose include making puzzles,working on the computer, drawing pictures, building with Lego’s, reading books andplaying in the role-play area. The role-play area contained items like toy kitchen items,dress-up clothes and tools.

In another classroom, there was a reading lesson in progress when a neighboring teacherwalked in and spoke softly to Mr. N. Mr. N. said to his class, “Now we have a decisionto make, the other class is putting on a play. We can either stay here and work or we cango to the play. We have to vote to see what we want to do.” He then called on eachstudent and each student said, “Watch the play.” So Mr. N. and his class went into theother room to watch the play. As is illustrated in both of the above examples, having thepower over one’s time helps students to learn how to set goals, choose priorities andallocate limited time, all of which are skills children need to be successful as students andalso later to lead productive lives as adults.

Due to the importance of students learning how to participate in democratic settings bythe time they are adults, this is an area that Gilman Elementary should continue toexamine and support. While there were some examples of student leadership anddecision-making found in Gilman Elementary, this is a crucial aspect of Whole Schoolingand one that could be developed more in any school.

Finding 3: Schools grow and change quickly, but schools reform slowly.The one rapid change that Gilman Elementary School experienced at the start of theWhole Schooling Research project was the hiring of a new principal. Mr. Schley, thenew principal expressed a different philosophy on special education and inclusion fromthe previous principal, which impacted the ongoing reform efforts spearheaded by theprevious principal. One teacher shared that the school was also working with a new

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CESA person, who had different beliefs about inclusion than the previous principal.Staff members that had been very committed to the reform efforts of the prior principalwere apprehensive about what would happen in the school. Some changes teachersmentioned as possible were moving away from the Gilman Reading Model and a push forless inclusion and less teaming between general and special educators. At the end of theWhole Schooling Research project, the teachers’ fears about change were partly realized.The approach to inclusion had moved in a different direction with a cut in specialeducation staff and less support for team teaching between special and general educators.One change that had not occurred was any dismantling of the Gilman Reading Model,which was a relief to teachers who were strongly committed to it. Because of the tensionand fear that a change in administration can cause in a school, this may be an area forfurther examination and discussion in Gilman Elementary. For reform efforts to proceedsuccessfully, teachers and administrators must work together to continue currentprograms and/or implement new ones.

Finding 4: School leaders promote and believe that continual staffdevelopment, research, and collaboration improves the quality ofeducation for all.There was some evidence in Gilman elementary that school leaders believe that continualstaff development, research and collaboration improve the quality of education for all.The first indicator is the ongoing study and implementation of the Gilman ReadingModel. As was described in a previous section, the Gilman Reading Model is a school-wide reading program that had been entirely researched and created by the school staff.The reading model was set up in such a way as to include all students, provide instructionat the appropriate developmental level for all students and provide access to the samecurricular content to all students. The administration and staff worked closely together todevelop the reading program and were involved in ongoing research to study itseffectiveness. The results of the research was intended to help those involved makedecisions about expanding and/or revising the program. As one teacher stated, “Ourtesting and our research are important for supporting learning. We are doing our ownresearch in our district to see which programs are effective.”

A second indicator that professional development, research and collaboration weresupported at Gilman Elementary was seen in the many ways teachers worked together.Teachers within grade level teams were often seen collaborating, combining their classesto complete activities, and creating student work groups that included students fromacross the classrooms. There was also evidence of cross-grade collaborations likereading buddies between first and third graders and older students helping to takekindergarten students on a field trip. In addition to collaboration between generaleducators, observations also revealed collaboration between special and generaleducators. Students with disabilities were fully included in the general educationclassroom and special educators often worked in general education classrooms. Whenthe special educators worked in the general education classroom they were observedhelping students with and without disabilities.

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One final indicator of the willingness of Gilman administrators and teachers to engage inprofessional development, research and collaboration is their participation in the WholeSchooling Research study. Mr. Schley and the staff of the school opened all aspects ofthe school’s operation to close scrutiny. The attitude of the school community was thatthey were proud of the things happening at Gilman Elementary and wanted to share thiswith others who could benefit from their example. School personnel also expressed adesire to receive feedback that might help them be even more effective.

Finding 5: Diversity across ethnicity, SES, culture, ability, etc. isaccepted and valued.Diversity in the traditional sense of the word, which usually means race, was not veryevident in Gilman Elementary School. Gilman is a very small, rural community innorthwestern Wisconsin and the majority of residents are Caucasian. The homogeneousnature of Gilman community is reflected in the student population. While there was littleracial or cultural diversity in Gilman Elementary, a form of diversity that was embracewas that of ability. All students with disabilities were fully included in general educationclassrooms with special educators providing supports within the classroom and doingminimal pullout. One classroom included a student with fairly significant CD and allclassrooms included students with learning and emotional disabilities. A quote from ateacher exemplifies the approach to inclusion taken by Gilman teachers: “I have astudent who is borderline CD and I really try to make sure he is included in everything.He was the one who was crying over milk break. He has really come out of his shell inthe last month.” The Gilman Elementary School staff are encouraged to continue tosupport diversity in the form of ability and any other diversity they may encounter in thefuture.

Finding 6: Students, Teachers, and parents are encouraged andempowered to develop their true selves.As was discussed in a previous finding, Gilman teachers had control over curriculumdecisions in their classrooms and were observed implementing integrated, creative andengaging lessons in their classrooms. The control over their classroom curriculumallowed teachers to express their true selves through the lessons they taught. In oneclassroom, a teacher who clearly loved children’s literature and drama often integratedchildren’s books into his teaching, even in math class. He read expressively and oftengot the students involved in acting out parts of the story or saying repeating verses in thebook. In another classroom, a teacher expressed enthusiasm for the thematic units shetaught. She even went as far as dressing the part. For one of the days in a bat unit shewas teaching to her students, she came to school dressed all in black and wearing aspecial hair band with a black velvet bat mounted on it. Dressed in her bat outfit, sheread a book to students called “Bats on Parade,” which told the story of a bat marchingband.

Previous examples were given of Gilman students serving as teachers and choosinginstructional activities and other special activities in which to participate. Havingopportunities to serve as teachers and having choices about how to spend classroom timecan provide them with opportunities to develop their true selves. An example of this was

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observed in a kindergarten classroom. Students had a thirty-minute “free choice time” atthe end of the day. One of the choices was a role-playing center and in the center weredress-up clothes, pots and pans, a toy camera, a phone and play food. A group of ninegirls were observed playing “house” in the role-play center. One part of their playincluded the coming of a tornado whereupon the girls pretended to run to the basement tobe safe. Tornado safety is generally part of the school curriculum, and these girls wereusing the role-play time to practice the safety measures they had learned. In another “freechoice” observation another group of girls was seen pulling items together from the role-playing center to sell in their “garage sale.” As is illustrated in this example, the girlsbeing observed were able to be creative and dramatic and to rehearse possible scenariosthey might encounter in their future lives.

In addition to involving students in decision-making about classroom activities therewere other attitudes observed in Gilman Elementary that encouraged students to developtheir true selves. One very interesting finding was the way in which student behavior wasviewed. There were some classroom examples where students engaged in behavior thatmight have been viewed by teachers in more traditional settings as “problem” behavior,but was instead interpreted as an expression of individuality and viewed as anopportunity for the teacher to learn more about the student. An observation in akindergarten room illustrates this point. The following scenario occurred after studentshad been asked to draw pictures of themselves:

As the students worked on the drawings of themselves, one little boy saidhe was sitting on the “poddie.” Mrs. D. walked over to him and said, “Ithink you were trying to draw yourself and it didn’t look exactly the wayyou wanted so you said you were on the ‘poddie.’ What would you like tochange?” Mrs. D. walked over to the observer and said, “I’m keeping myeye on his drawing, he started out by drawing facial features, which is ahigher level skill and then couldn’t draw the body the way the otherstudents were so he said he was sitting on the pot.”

Notice that in the above interaction Mrs. D. said, “I am keeping my eye on his drawing,”instead of “I am keeping my eye on him.” In a later conversation, Mrs. D. made astatement that seems very much reflected in the above scenario, she said, “You just listento the kids talking and you learn a lot about what they know.” Rather than jumping to theconclusion that students are goofing off and trying to cause trouble, this teacher lookedbeneath the behavior to see the unique individual underneath and what he/she is trying toexpress. In this way, rather than punishing students, teachers open the door for studentsto continue to discover their true selves.

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Principle 2: INCLUDE ALLThe second principle of Whole Schooling supports instructional practices where allchildren learn together across culture, ethnicity, language, ability, gender, and age. Thisprinciple is exemplified in many ways at Gilman Elementary School. The followingfindings and corresponding examples will demonstrate this.

Finding 1: Students with disabilities have access to the generaleducation curriculum.Gilman Elementary is the only school in a small rural area and serves all of the childrenwho live in the community. This includes students with and without disabilities. Nospecialized or different curricula are used for students with disabilities who attendGilman Elementary. Students with disabilities are fully included in the general educationclassroom with minimal pullouts. An example that exemplifies how all Gilman studentsare included in the general education curriculum is the Gilman Reading Model. As hasbeen discussed previously, the Gilman staff worked together to develop the GilmanReading Model to provide reading instruction to all students at the level that isappropriate for them. Teachers work within and across grade groups to provide readinginstruction at each student’s level.

An observation of and conversation with Mrs. H., one of the Gilman kindergartenteachers, helps to illuminate how the Gilman reading model works. During theobservation, Mrs. H. and two other kindergarten teachers were seen working with threereading groups in two different classrooms. Mrs. H.’s group, which consisted of sevenstudents, was reading a big book about a train. As they read the story together, Mrs. H.helped them to focus on the words “stop” and “out.” As the students read in unison withMrs. H., she had students come up to the book one at a time to put a colored, transparentsticker over any occurrence of “stop” or “out.” One particular student struggled withfinding the word “out” and Mrs. H. provided him with clues and supports until he wasable to find it. Next, students were introduced to a new sentence that was added to aseries of sentences they had been working on from a previous lesson. The sentence read,“We made it to the fair on time.” Students counted the number of words and then readthe sentence together. Each student was given a word card with one of the words fromthe sentence on it. The students matched their word cards to the words in the sentenceand then read the sentence again. The final activity that this reading group was observedcompleting was working with the “op” sound from the word “stop.” Mrs. H. wrote___op on the board and had student make new words by adding a new beginning letter.

After the observation, Mrs. H. was asked about her reading group and she explained thather students are in the all-day five-year-old kindergarten program, but that two of thestudents go between her reading group and the four-year-old kindergarten room. She saidone of the students is a little less mature than the other five year olds and wants to play allof the time and the other student had trouble hearing sounds in a word and needed morework on sounds. Although this second student is still quite young and had not beentested, Mrs. H. said she suspected the child had a learning disability. Spending sometime in the four-year-old kindergarten room provided the time to mature and support forsound recognition these students needed. Mrs. H. also explained that although her group

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would be considered the lowest reading group, all of the reading groups are taught thesame reading curriculum, but focus on different things depending on their needs. Shesaid her group needs more work on sounds than the other groups, so she spends moretime on sounds. She said that Mrs. D.’s group was working on cause and effect, whichMrs. H.’s group had worked on the day before, but Mrs. D.’s group would go farther withcause and effect because they were ready to do more with that concept. In this way,reading instruction was provided to all kindergarten students in the general educationclassroom.

At the second grade level, the coordinator of special education in the school teamed withthe other second grade teachers to teach reading. Each of the teachers, including thespecial educator, had a reading group and each group contained students with and withoutspecial needs. Although the special educator said his students would be considered thelowest readers, it included students with and without disabilities. Because the specialeducator worked with one of the reading groups, the second grade teachers were able tokeep group sizes small and provide instruction that was suitable for the developmentallevel of each group. Regardless of the reading level, all students were immersed inliteracy development including word recognition, vocabulary building and the reading ofa wide variety of children’s books. All classrooms at the K-2 level spend two and a halfhours per day receiving reading instruction through the Gilman Reading Model. Thesecond grade special educator said he felt the success of the reading model explained whythey only had seven students identified as EEN out of a school of 200 – 300 students.

Another example of students with disabilities being included in the general educationcurriculum was observed in a third grade classroom. Terri, a child with moderate CD,was participating in a math lesson. Mrs. P. the third grade teacher demonstrated tostudents how they could draw pictures to help them solve math problems. Mrs. P.discussed with students some of the things they could draw. Students suggested thingslike stars and Christmas trees. Mrs. P. asked Terri what holiday was coming soon andTerri said, “Christmas.” Mrs. P. said, “Yes, but what is coming even sooner than that?The colors are orange and black.” Terri replied, “Thanksgiving?” Another student in theclassroom suggested, “You get candy.” Terri said, “Halloween?” Mrs. P. said, “Yes, andwhat could you draw from Halloween?” Another student said, “Ghosts?” Mrs. P. said,“Yes, you could draw ghosts.” It was common to see Mrs. P. involving Terri inclassroom activities as much as possible.

While there were numerous examples of students with disabilities being included in thegeneral education curriculum, there were also times when students with disabilities werepulled out of the classroom and times when students with disabilities were in the generaleducation classroom, but not participating in the same activities as the other students. Inanother classroom observation of Terri’s classroom, Mrs. P. played a spelling game withthe students called “Apple Pie.” Mrs. P. gave a word from the spelling list and studentstook turns spelling one letter at a time from the word. When a word was completed, thenext student would say, “Apple Pie” and then sit down. The last person standing was the“apple pie winner for the week.” While the Apple Pie game was being played, Terri wasobserved sitting in her desk watching, but not participating. There were other times when

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all of the third grade students went out for recess and Terri stayed in the classroomworking on the computer.

Although Gilman students are placed in inclusive classrooms, it will be important tocontinue monitoring their degree of participation and their academic outcomes in order tomake adjustments in the amount of services that are provided to individuals and thestructure or format in which those services are provided.

Finding 2: Inclusion is valuable for kids with disabilities.The primary way students with disabilities benefit from inclusion at Gilman is related tothe ways in which teachers team together. For example, the three kindergarten teachersworked closely together and developed curriculum and class activities that included allstudents across the three classrooms. As one of the kindergarten teachers said of thisarrangement, “With three teachers we are able to keep small groups so we can do thingsthat students who have special needs can adapt to what we are doing. We try to do theintelligences so that we do a story and hands-on. If a student doesn’t learn through oneintelligence they can do it through another like a song or playacting.” The three teacherswere observed facilitating a wide variety of engaging, hands-on activities with students.The students worked in groups and moved from teacher to teacher, thus interacting withthree different adults and participating in a greater variety of activities than they mighthave been able to in a traditional classroom. A special educator also worked with thethree kindergarten teachers during reading instruction, so they were able to dividestudents into four different reading groups. Because the kindergarten teachers were ableto reduce the pupil to teacher ratio through their grouping practices, and utilized engaginginstructional practices, it was almost impossible to tell which students had special needsand which did not.

Another example of a student with disabilities benefiting from inclusion was observed inthe third grade classroom in which Terri a student with fairly severe CD, was a student.During a lesson on Native Americans, Terri was paired with a non-disabled partner. Thetwo of them were working together to paint an Indian pueblo. The two of them workedtogether for about twenty minutes until the pueblo was completely painted. Because thestudents were used to working with Terri, there appeared to be widespread acceptance ofher disabilities amongst the other students. Sadly, in the fall of the second year of theWhole Schooling Research project, Terri transferred to another school where studentswere less accepting of her differences. Mrs. P., Terri’s teacher, said that she talked toTerri’s new teacher and she was struggling to get the other students in the classroom toembrace Terri as a fellow student. As this scenario illustrates there is an important socialcomponent to inclusion. If students with disabilities spend a good part of their day in apullout program, both the students with special needs and those without are made moreaware of the differences between them. The principal further highlights the personal andsocial impact of pullout programs on students when he said, “Being pulled out andlabeled can really affect a kids’ self-esteem. They know they are being called the dumbgroup.”

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As has been discussed previously, there was some concern expressed by teachers abouthow changes in personnel (the principal and the school psychologist) would impact thefuture of inclusion at Gilman Elementary School. The final quote in the previousparagraph seems to express support for inclusion on the part of the principal, but sinceteachers are expressing concern, the topic of inclusion probably warrants furtherdiscussion amongst all stakeholders at Gilman school.

Finding 3: Inclusion improves the educational experience for all kids.As has been discussed in previous sections, a key to inclusion at Gilman ElementarySchool is the way teachers work together to group students and reduce the pupil tostudent ratio. General education teachers team together and general and special educatorsteam together in creative ways to facilitate flexibility in grouping and smaller group sizes.The low pupil to teacher ratio is helped further by Gilman’s involvement in the statewideSAGE program, which provides funds to school districts to help them reduce class sizesto fifteen students. The low pupil to student ratio at Gilman benefits students with andwithout disabilities. Due to the benefits of small classes that he had observed, Gilman’sprincipal expressed strong support for the practice. He stated, “I really believe the key issmall class sizes. I think there should be smaller class sizes for K through 12.”

In addition to the low pupil to teacher ratio at Gilman Elementary, the practicesimplemented by the teachers as they teamed and worked collaboratively also created apositive learning environment for all students. Some of these practices include theimplementation of multiple intelligences theory to help address the learning needs andinterest of all students; the strong focus on literacy instruction practiced through theGilman Reading Model, and the commitment on the part of special education staff to helpand support all students in the classroom. Special educators were observed working withtheir own math and reading groups, tutoring individuals and small groups of students inthe general education classroom, reading stories to the whole class and assisting withspecial activities like learning centers and programming for parents. One specialeducation teacher was even observed serving as a stand-in for missing grandparents on“Grandparents’ Day.” The special educator explained that she didn’t want any student tofeel left out because his/her grandparents were unable to attend the special program.

Finding 4: Inclusion provides positive, proactive supports for students.There was definite evidence that inclusion provides positive, proactive supports forstudents at Gilman Elementary. One obvious support observed was the structure of theGilman Reading Model. Within the model, special and general education teachersteamed together to provide reading instruction for small groups of students at the levelthat is appropriate for their development and needs. Also within the model, students wereimmersed in a wide variety of literacy activities including the building of basic readingskills, vocabulary development and the frequent reading of high interest children’sliterature. As one teacher stated about the Gilman Reading Model, “We are so committedto our reading program. With the way our reading model is set up, all of the studentswith special needs do everything that all of the other students are doing. That way wewere able to move some kids up and we were able to move some kids into smaller groupsif they need it. It can really help with self-confidence.” As this quote highlights, the

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Gilman reading model allows for flexible grouping, the smooth movement of studentsbetween groups depending on their needs and equal access to the same readingcurriculum for all students. Also, as the quote indicates, students were observedbecoming confident, capable readers.

Another positive, proactive support observed and discussed at Gilman Elementary Schoolwas the communication that occurred between teachers and parents. One generaleducation teacher described how she worked to communicate with the parents of studentswith special needs. She said, “I do have two students with ADHD. I do give themmedication after lunch and I really stay in touch with parents to keep track of what isgoing on. There is another girl who is having problems academically and I have a journalgoing back and forth with the parents as far as work that we are doing so they know whatto help her with.” Not only did the teachers communicate with parents through notes andphone calls, they welcomed parents who came to the school to talk about their children.Parents were observed frequently stopping in to classrooms to drop children off and pickthem up and they often talked to the teachers about what was happening in the classroom.The efforts of the teachers to reach out to parents were recognized and appreciated byparents, which came through in parent interviews. One parent of a child with disabilitiessaid, “The teachers [are a strength at Gilman School], last year when Billie was in firstgrade, his teacher would go as far as calling me and telling me what was happening. Thesupport staff is wonderful, Billie had a tutor in reading over the summer. The tutor camein twice a week. The teachers are compassionate and they really, really care about thekids.” This caring attitude on the part of teachers went a long way to making bothparents and students feel supported.

Finding 5: Inclusion promotes the natural distribution of students.Students with a wide range of cognitive, learning, emotional and other disabilities wereincluded in the general education classrooms at all grade levels at Gilman Elementaryand were naturally distributed. As described in previous sections, the kindergartenstudents flowed between two classrooms and two teachers (three teachers in the first yearof the study) and were grouped and regrouped depending on the needs of the students andthe type of activity being implemented. Special educators provided services to thekindergarten students in the general education classroom and also worked with smallgroups of students that included students with and without disabilities. At the first gradelevel, students with disabilities were naturally distributed across two classrooms withlimited pullouts. At the second grade level the special education coordinator in theschool teamed with the other second grade teachers. In this arrangement, the specialeducation coordinator sometimes team taught with the general educators and providedinstruction in the general education classroom, and sometimes taught a small group in hisown classroom, as was observed during reading instruction. Regardless of whether thespecial educator was teaching in the general education classroom or in his ownclassroom, he worked with students with and without disabilities.

One area that Gilman Elementary School staff may want to examine is the practice ofability grouping observed in some of the classrooms. While there are definite differencesbetween the ability grouping that is done within the Gilman Reading Model and

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traditional reading groups because of the flexibility in grouping, the movement ofstudents between groups and the practice of providing the same curriculum to allstudents, students are still grouped by ability. Ability grouping was also observed inseveral classrooms for math instruction. The upside to grouping students by ability is theways in which the groupings facilitate delivery of instruction that is developmentallyappropriate to students who are at a similar level of development. The downside toability grouping occurs when students become stigmatized by being permanent membersof the “low group,” and when the lower ability groups contain high percentages ofstudents with disabilities, which works against the natural distribution of students.Gilman Elementary staff members are encouraged to continue to examine their groupingpractices to ensure that the positive effects of their inclusion practices are not underminedby ability grouping within inclusive classrooms.

Principle 3: TEACH AND ADAPT FOR DIVERSITYThe third principle of Whole Schooling promotes the philosophy and practice ofdesigning instruction for diverse learners that engage them in active learning inmeaningful, real-world activities. The following findings and examples illustrate howGilman Elementary School implements this principle.

Finding 1: Instructional practices are responsive to learner’s needs,interests and abilities.There were several examples of instructional practices that were responsive to learner’sneeds, interests and abilities observed in Gilman Elementary School. The GilmanReading Model has been discussed in several previous sections and the whole basis of theprogram is to provide reading curriculum to all students at a pace and level that isappropriate for their needs and abilities. The approach that was taken to readinginstruction at Gilman would fall under the category of “multi-level” or “differentiated”curriculum in that the instruction included a variety of activities addressing multiplelevels of difficulty at the same time. The teachers were able to accomplish adifferentiated approach to reading by the ways in which general and special educationteachers collaborated to create smaller groups of students who received the samecurriculum, but the focus and pace of instruction varied depending on the developmentallevel of the students in the group. The utilization of small groups with low pupil toteacher ratios was facilitated by the creative use of parent, grandparent and high schoolvolunteers in Gilman classrooms. The Gilman Reading Model varied from traditionalreading groups in that all students received the same curriculum and there was frequentregrouping and movement of students between groups depending on the skills beingtaught and the readiness level of the children to learn those skills.

In order to determine the readiness and developmental levels of students, GilmanElementary teachers became very adept at observing students closely to determine whateach student was capable of doing. A kindergarten teacher describes her technique foridentifying the needs and ability levels of her students:

I find out over and over by the discovery work, by just giving them thematerials and letting them work with them, it really tells us what they can

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do, more than just screening them. Screening would be like taking themto the board and putting sight words on the board and having kids identifythe sight words and either they know it or they don't know it. That isn'tthe same as watching how they apply the knowledge and how theycreatively work with the words.

As this quote highlights, providing multi-level/differentiated instruction requires closeobservation and reflection on what a student is able to do. This goes beyond a simplepass/fail approach to assessing skills where either the student can read a word or theycan’t. As was often observed in the kindergarten classrooms in Gilman, sometimes astudent could not identify a word by sight or sound it out, but when prompted with theword could use it appropriately in a complex sentence. The Gilman teachersacknowledged that a student like the one just described is ready for instruction that goesbeyond repetitive phonics drills on letter recognition even though they may struggle withtheir letters.

A classroom observation in a kindergarten classroom demonstrates how GilmanElementary teachers helped students with a variety of needs, abilities and interests todevelop vocabulary. Rather than a traditional approach to show and tell where studentsbring toys or other material items from home to share with classmates, the Gilmankindergarten students engaged in “letter show and tell.” During this particularobservation, a group of eight students was working on the letter “H.” On the white boardin the front of the room there was a list of 58 “H” words already written, so it wasapparent that students had been working on “H” for a while. The teacher called onstudents one at a time to come to the front of the room and share their show and tell itemand/or word. The first student walked up holding a little toy hammer. The teacher askedhim what his word was and he said, “Hammer.” The word hammer was already on thelist so the teacher pointed to it and then wrote a tally mark after it to show that hammerwas said again. Another student had a hot pad and a third had a deer horn. One of thelittle boys came to the front of the room and didn’t have an actual item, so the teacherasked him, “What is your word?” He replied, “Help.” She said, “Can you use your wordin a sentence?” He said, “Please help me.” She said, “That was a good sentence with theword help in it.” She found the word help on the list and wrote a tally mark next to it.Some of the other “H” words listed on the board were helmet, harmonica, hair dryer,Happy Birthday, helicopter, hamburger and Harley Davidson. Through this approach toshow and tell, students of varying levels of ability and needs could share new words,develop vocabulary skills, build a context and meaning for words and bring in aspects oftheir lives outside of school.

In a third grade classroom, an instructional approach to addressing multiple abilities,needs and interests at the same time was an independent reading time called “DEER.”During “DEER” time all members of the classroom, including the teacher, read a book oftheir choice silently. During one observation of “DEER,” Mrs. S., the teacher, called allstudents over to look at a book she was reading on Yugoslavia. She pointed toYugoslavia on a world map and talked about how big it was in relation to the UnitedStates. She told students she wanted them to know something about Yugoslavia for when

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they heard about it on T.V. After Mrs. S. described her book to students, she asked if anyof them were reading a particularly good book. Several students volunteered to share andeach one gave the title of the book and then told a little about it. With each student, Mrs.S. said, “Hold the book up and give the title again in case someone wants to read it.” Byimplementing a daily reading time like “DEER,” Mrs. S. encouraged students to findbooks that were at an appropriate reading level and were of interest to them. Regardlessof what level students were reading at, what they could share with one another was theexcitement of reading a “good” book, whatever that meant to each student.

One final way Gilman teachers were seen addressing the varying needs and abilities oftheir students was by using multiple methods of presentation during lessons. Theteachers were observed utilizing manipulatives, pictorial representations, graphs, charts,maps, and video to present information. They also integrated literature, poetry, music,drama, art and technology in creative ways that appealed to a wide variety of interestsand needs. Gilman teachers often referred to multiple intelligences theory when theydiscussed how they planned their curriculum and instruction. There was an awareness onthe part of Gilman teachers that because students have different styles of learning,teachers need to utilize a variety of ways to present information.

Finding 2: Motivating instruction reduces the need for individualaccommodations.The two primary ways that Gilman teachers were observed making their instructionmotivating was the enthusiasm they conveyed about their teaching and the high degree ofstudent involvement they built into their lessons. A particular classroom observationexemplifies both of these traits. The following interaction was observed in a secondgrade classroom during reading instruction:

Mr. N. said, “Is there one more person who would like me to read theirbook?” Several students raised their hands and Mr. N. said, “Sally, I’ll doyour book.” He first had Sally tell her picture story and then he read thebook out loud to the class. The story was about a class of students whowere putting on an animal play. As he read the story, he had students actout the different animals. He had Brody hop like a frog. He had Michellefly like a bird. He had all of the students crawl like an ant.

Mr. N., a special educator who taught his own reading group, demonstrated an obviouslove for literature and reading with his students. His tone of voice was very dramatic andhe engendered a high degree of student involvement through the instructional strategieshe employed. He told stories, he had students tell stories, he related what was beingaddressed in the instruction to students’ lives outside of school, he had students act outstories as was described above, and he drew from a wide variety of children’s books inhis teaching.

Another example of enthusiastic teaching and high levels of student engagement wasobserved in a kindergarten classroom. The observation occurred close to Halloween andthe teacher was telling the story of a little boy who planted some mystery seeds. As Mrs.

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D. told the story of how the little boy tilled the ground, planted the seeds and cared forthem, she acted out each step. She used suspense to hold the students’ attention as shedescribed how the plants grew into vines, flowered, lost their flowers and finallydeveloped mysterious bumps on them. As she told the story, she had a brown bag thatrepresented the dirt and from it she pulled out a long green vine with yellow flowers on it.When she got to the end of the story and the end of the vine, she finally said, “Finally theplant had a what on it?” All of the students said in unison, “Pumpkin!” This was thedramatic beginning to a whole series of hands-on activities related to pumpkins. Studentsapplied their knowledge of shapes and colors to create a jack-o-lantern face, reviewed thelife cycle of the pumpkin again when Mrs. D. read the book “The Tiniest Pumpkin ofAll,” and practiced math skills by singing a pumpkin song and counting pumpkins.Students were highly motivated to participate in the activities because of Mrs. D.’sexcitement about pumpkins, her creative introduction to the topic and then the engagingnature of the follow-up activities. Students with and without special needs were includedin Mrs. D.’s group and there was no way to tell during this observation because allstudents were highly involved and successfully participating.

Related to the previous classroom description, a third way Gilman teachers madeinstruction motivating for students was through the development and implementation ofthematic units. Like the pumpkin unit, teachers in all of the classrooms were observedteaching a series of lessons or learning centers focused on a specific theme. Kindergartenstudents were observed doing thematic studies of pumpkins, bats, weather, bears andwinter birds. The two first grade classrooms were observed working on a thematic uniton the sea where they learned about a variety of ocean animals and plant life. The thirdgraders studied about pioneers and Native Americans through thematic units. What wasespecially striking about the thematic units teachers developed at Gilman Elementary wasthe degree to which literacy was built into the thematic units. As a part of the thematicunits, teachers utilized fiction and non-fiction children’s books, poetry, videotapedversions of stories and song lyrics as vehicles for communicating theme-related contentto students.

Finding 3: “Authentic” curriculum and instructional practices areimplemented.For the purposes of this study, “authentic” curriculum and instructional practices weredefined as those that involved the construction of knowledge, disciplined inquiry andvalue beyond school. There were several examples of authentic instruction andcurriculum observed in Gilman Elementary classrooms.

The first example of authentic curriculum and instructional practices were observedduring the teaching of science. At the beginning of a science lesson in a third gradeclassroom, Mrs. S. was observed putting a sheet on every student’s desk that said,"Science Data Organizer." Mrs. S. called everyone to gather around her and sit on thefloor. She had an ice cream bucket with tadpoles in it sitting on the floor in front of her.One of her students had brought the tadpoles from home for the lesson. Mrs. S. said, "Iwant everyone to think about one thing they would like to know about tadpoles.”Students asked questions like, "How can they swim so fast with that big head?"; "Why do

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they have such a big head?"; “How long do they live?” and “How do they hear?” Mrs. S.said, “I hope everyone has a different question. She then directed students to go back totheir desks and write their question on their “Science Data Organizer” sheet and askedthem what they would need to answer their questions. Students said they could look inbooks and study the tadpoles. As this particular lesson ended, Mrs. S. told them that theywould be conducting the research necessary to answer their own questions abouttadpoles. The authentic practice in which Mrs. S. had students involved was thescientific method. They used observations of the world around them to generatequestions and were then going to conduct research to find the answers to their questions.This was a much different approach than hearing the teacher lecture on the characteristicsof tadpoles.

Another example of authentic instruction was observed in the same classroom in reading.As has been highlighted over and over in the findings of Gilman Elementary School,literacy and reading instruction are high priorities in the school. The teaching of skillswas usually taught within the context of reading actual text. An observation in a thirdgrade classroom illustrates how this was done. Students were reading a chapter bookcalled “More Stories Julian Tells,” and were nearing the end of the book. Mrs. S. said,“Before you read the last chapter, look at the picture. The picture isn’t very big, but lookat it and tell me if you know what the last chapter might be about. How many of you seetwo lions? What could the lions symbolize?” One student hypothesized that they mightsymbolize the roaring river. Another student thought they might have something to dowith nighttime. Mrs. S. said that her guess was that maybe the lions symbolized the dadin the story because Julian was always saying he roared. Mrs. S. said, “You’ll be findingout when you read the final chapter tomorrow.” In her reading instruction, Mrs. S.worked on prediction, vocabulary development, reading with expression, symboliclanguage, and decoding skills all within the context of reading children’s literature.Students learned all of the skills usually associated with phonics instruction, but studentswere never seen completing drill and practice worksheets of skills taken out of context.

As was discussed in a previous section, kindergarten students at Gilman also participatedin authentic reading practices. An example already given was related to vocabularydevelopment through a word show and tell activity. Students drew from text they hadbeen exposed to and their life experiences outside of school to share new words with theirclassmates. In one kindergarten classroom, students were observed sharing words assophisticated as violin, vacuum and velvet. Not only were the students able to share andpronounce the words, they were able to use the words in context as they told why theychose to share the word. In addition to this approach to vocabulary development,students were immersed in a variety of authentic reading practices like telling stories,reciting poetry, reading children’s books, and singing song lyrics.

Math is probably the subject area most likely to be taught in a drill and skill manner, yetauthentic math practices were observed in Gilman Elementary School. One examplerevolves around the study of money. As part of a math unit on money, one teacher hadstudents examine actual coins and bills to determine what is usually found on money andwhy. The students then worked in pairs to design their own money including symbols of

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their choosing that were consistent with the symbols found on real money. The observerof this lesson asked students about their money designs and they were able to explain themeaning of the symbols they chose and why they had chosen them. In another example,kindergarten students were observed learning how to use standard units of measurementin order to figure out how long a man’s beard was in a story they were reading. Mrs. D.was reading a story to a group of students and the story described a man with a beard tenfeet long. Mrs. D. engaged in a dialogue of inquiry with students as she asked them howthey could figure out just how long a ten-foot beard would be. A student suggested theyuse a ruler, so Mrs. D. proceeded to demonstrate to students how they could use ayardstick to measure out a ten-foot beard. Mrs. D. measured along the door opening sostudents could see that a ten-foot beard was longer than the height of the door. In thislesson, students learned about standard units of measurement, converting yards to feetand estimating length by making comparisons to everyday objects like a door opening.All of this was taught within the context of a story where understanding the actual lengthof the man’s beard made the story more humorous and more meaningful.

While numerous examples of authentic curriculum practices were observed in GilmanElementary classrooms, there were also examples of instruction that did not involve thestudents in construction of knowledge and disciplined inquiry. There were quite a fewlessons observed where students spent the class period filling in drill and skillworksheets. An example of this kind of lesson was observed during reading instructionwhere students were completing a worksheet on the short “u” sound. The teacher said,“The directions say to circle all of the pictures that have the short ‘u’ sound.” Theteacher read the name of each picture and then told students to circle the ones that had theshort “u” sound. Students completed one side of a worksheet in this manner and thenturned it over and completed the other side of the worksheet in the same way except theydrew an X under the pictures that had the short “u”. While students may need torecognize the short “u” sound in a piece of text, this particular worksheet lesson gavestudents no context for the skill and gave the teacher no assurance that students would beable to read the short “u” sound if they encountered it in a story. Since the ultimate goalof reading instruction is not only to teach students to decode words and comprehend text,but also to become lifelong readers, Gilman staff may want to examine instruction toassure that students are learning skills within a meaningful context.

Finding 4: Instructional practices integrate curriculum.Gilman Elementary School teachers were observed integrating content and skills acrossdiscipline/subject areas in several ways. A term that most accurately describescurriculum at Gilman Elementary is “literacy rich,” meaning that students werefrequently interacting with text in meaningful ways. The following quote by a Gilmankindergarten teacher when asked what instructional practices support learning at herschool, seems to express a belief common to Gilman teachers:

I think with the strong emphasis on literacy and love of reading. Andonce they have the love of reading, the other things follow. I guess thereisn't a lot more you can say than that. By being careful to choose literatureand other nonfiction materials that fit in with the curriculum in the other

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subject areas, we are able to handle just about everything in thecurriculum.

Literature was observed being integrated into the teaching of science, socialstudies, language arts and math. The integration of literature into the core subjectareas makes a great deal of sense because it is a way to communicate contentmatter to students through stories, and stories are often more meaningful andinteresting to students than straight factual information.

An example of this was observed in a third grade classroom where students werestudying pioneer life. To help them understand what pioneer life was actuallylike, students were reading a book called, “Pioneer Cat.” The story was about ayoung girl who takes a pet cat on a wagon train going west. During the lessonobserved, students read one chapter of the book and learned about the clothingworn by pioneers, the size and structure of a pioneer schooner, how to makecornbread, and how to pack for a wagon trip west. While the story isfictionalized, it is based on the real life experiences of pioneers and is toldthrough the voice of a young girl who is similar in age to the third graders. In thisway, students are able to connect with the historical content in a way theycouldn’t without the use of literature.

While literature seems to fit naturally with social studies, it may seem moredifficult to integrate literature with math. Yet, there were several instances ofmath and literature integration observed. In one example, Mr. N. a specialeducator teaching reading to second graders was observed reading a Christmasstory to his students where the main character was trying to earn money to buy hismother a blanket. At different points in the story, Mr. N. would stop and askstudents to solve the math involved to calculate how much the little boy hadearned thus far in the story. The little boy earned money by selling trees sostudents had to multiply each tree by its money value and then add that number towhat the little boy had already earned. This exercise reinforced math skills andmodeled real world applications of mathematics. Also important, the integrationof math and literature like the example just described breaks down the artificialboundaries between subject areas that are often seen in schools.

Another form of integration observed in Gilman Elementary was the integration of thefine arts like art, music and drama. The kindergarten teachers said they frequentlyworked with the art, music and physical education teachers to integrate the arts into theirthematic units. Some examples of this integration include the art teacher having studentsconstruct and decorate kites to go along with a weather unit; the physical educationteacher having students act and move like bears as part of a bear unit and the musicteacher leading a song on coins because she knew the kindergartners were learning aboutmoney in their classroom. The kindergarten teachers said the teachers in the special areaswere very open to this kind of collaboration and sometimes suggested their own ideas togo along with the themes they knew the classroom teachers were covering. Through theintegration of the arts with the core academic curriculum, students were exposed to even

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more opportunities for learning important skills and knowledge. This is especiallyimportant for students with disabilities who may struggle with a particular mode oflearning like reading and need multiple exposures and multiple methods for learningimportant content and skills.

There was some evidence that teachers at Gilman Elementary School integratedtechnology into the classroom curriculum. There was at least one computer present in allof the classrooms and students were observed completing a variety of reading, math andproblem solving activities on the computers. There were two observations thatdemonstrated how students with special needs were included in the classroom through theuse of technology. One of the students in kindergarten read at a fifth grade level so someof the reading activities completed by the rest of the kindergarten students were not at hisinstructional level. When this occurred, he was able to work with reading software on thecomputer at a level that was appropriate and provided some challenges for him. In a thirdgrade classroom, Terri, a student with fairly severe CD was observed working with mathsoftware when she was not able to work on the math activities her classmates werecompleting. During one observation, Terri was observed using a math program called“The Graph Club.” She loaded the program from a CD and moved adeptly through aseries of bar graphing activities. The observer asked Terri interpretive questions aboutthe graph she had created and Terri was able to answer every one correctly. While therewas some use of technology observed in Gilman Elementary classrooms, this is an areathat Gilman staff may want to study further, especially in the ways technology can beused to deliver differentiated instruction to students with varying abilities and needs.

Finding 5: School staff implement a number of major determiners oflearning including: small class size, high expectations, time on task,accountability, effective management strategies, predictability,structure and routine, high attendance and participation rates andrelevant curriculum.

There were many factors that influenced the degree to which students were encouragedand able to learn in Gilman Elementary School. Most of the major determiners oflearning have been covered in the previous four findings, particularly those that focus onthe importance of high-interest, motivating and authentic curriculum practices. Some ofthe curriculum practices that were particularly prevalent at Gilman Elementary were thedifferentiated approach to reading instruction, the strong focus on literacy, the integrationof literature into all subject areas, the variety of hands-on strategies used to presentcontent and skills and the excitement and enthusiasm of the teachers.

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Principle 4: BUILD COMMUNITY & SUPPORT LEARNINGPrinciple four focuses on the school’s practices for building an effective and supportivelearning community. This often requires the use of specialized school and communityresources (e.g., special education, Title 1, gifted education) to build support for students,parents and teachers. This principle also focuses on building community and mutualsupport within the classroom. Finally, providing proactive supports for students withbehavioral challenges is a necessary ingredient. The following findings and examplesillustrate Gilman Elementary School’s commitment to Principle 4.

Finding 1: The creative use of available time, staff, parents, and peersbenefits and supports ALL students.There were many creative uses of available time, staff, parents and peers observed inGilman Elementary School. Some of these have already been discussed like the uniquecollaboration amongst the kindergarten teachers. In the first year of the study, there were41 students in the kindergarten program and they were split between two fulltimeteachers and one half time teacher. The three teachers worked collaboratively betweentwo adjoining classrooms with the door open in between. In this way, the teachers couldgroup and regroup students according to the activities and the students’ needs and thestudents could flow between teachers and activities. In the second and third years of thestudy, the two, fulltime kindergarten teachers continued to work collaboratively betweenthe two adjoining classrooms.

Also previously discussed were the ways general and special educators teamed together.Special education teachers were observed team teaching with general educators in thegeneral education classrooms. The special education teachers frequently worked withtheir own reading groups, including students with and without disabilities, which reducedpupil to teacher ratios and helped to ensure that the needs of all students were met.During an observation at the beginning of the school year, a CD/ED teacher wascirculating in a kindergarten classroom and was asked what her schedule was like in thatparticular class. She replied, “Right now I don’t know because they haven’t started‘guided’ reading yet, but as long as I have time I’m going to spend it in this classroom.”

A similar “I’m available” attitude was expressed by a special educator who was observedhelping students in a second grade classroom. As the lesson progressed the specialeducator walked around and assisted any students who needed help making a Halloweenproject. The special educator explained to the observer that a little later she was going tobe acting as a stand-in grandparent for students who would not have anyone attending thespecial Grandparents’ Day program. She didn’t want any students to feel left out whengrandparents arrived to participate in classroom activities with their grandchildren. Bothof the above examples demonstrate the commitment of the Gilman special education staffto inclusion and their support for all students in the general education classroom.

Another creative use of human resources in Gilman Elementary is the “Youth TutoringYouth” program, which provides class credits to high school students who tutor childrenin the elementary grades. Because Gilman High School is in the same building complexas the elementary school, it is easy for high school students to go into elementary

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classrooms during their free periods. The high school students frequently spent time inclassrooms working one on one with students who needed extra support. In onekindergarten observation, a high school student was paired with a kindergarten studentwho needed help with her reading. Kelly, the high school student, and Fiona, thekindergartner sat down together with a book. As Fiona read, Kelly moved her fingeracross the sentences to help Fiona hold her place. When Fiona struggled with a word,Kelly helped her sound it out or read the word for her. Clearly, both Kelly and Fionawere benefiting from the time together. The young students looked to the high schoolstudents as positive role models and the high school students learned the skills ofteaching and nurturing others as they tutored the youngsters. An interaction that reallyillustrates this interrelationship was observed as a high school student helpedkindergarten students with their math. One of the little boys said proudly to the femalehigh school student, “Look at my five.” The high school student responded, “That’sawesome!”

In addition to high school tutors, there were various other classroom helpers observed inGilman classrooms. These included parent and grandparent volunteers who worked withsmall groups and individual students on a variety of educational activities. Thesevolunteers provided additional supports for students with and without disabilities.Having extra adults in the classroom also allowed the teachers to implement active,hands-on learning activities that would have been difficult for a solitary teacher toconduct with fifteen to twenty students. This was especially true in the kindergartenclassrooms where the teachers often had students involved in a variety of highly activelearning centers.

Finding 2: Peers serve as natural supports for their classmates.There was some evidence in Gilman Elementary that peers served as supports for oneanother. Students were occasionally observed working in small groups or pairs tocomplete activities. An example of this was an activity observed where students acrossthe two first grade classrooms were put into small groups to generate words. Thestudents were given the letters b, a, l, y, u, d, and g and were asked to work with theirpeers to generate as many words as possible from the letters. Students in the kindergartenclassroom frequently worked with peers as they engaged in centers and “free choice”time. During “free choice” students could spend time with the peers of their choosingand engage in a variety of activities like building with Lego’s and blocks, putting puzzlestogether, drawing pictures, playing outside and participating in a variety of role-playingactivities in the dramatic play area. The small groups and partners observed in theseclassrooms included students with and without disabilities so they had opportunities towork and learn together.

Although there were some observations of peers serving as natural supports for theirclassmates observed in Gilman Elementary classrooms, this is an area that may warrantfurther exploration. Many of the interactions observed in Gilman classrooms werebetween the classroom teacher and individual students within the context of a small orlarge group discussion. While these interactions were positive and supported student

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learning, peers working with peers provide important social and academic supports thatcan’t be developed in an adult/child relationship.

Finding 3: Whole Schools provide positive, proactive supports forbehavior management.Gilman teachers were observed providing supports for student behavior in a variety ofpositive ways. During an observation in a kindergarten classroom, the teacher wasleading a reading lesson and having students write words on their individual white boardswhen the following situation occurred:

A little girl named Susie, who the kindergarten teachers called “ADHD”put her white board down on the floor and refused to work. Mrs. V. (aparent helper) picked up the white board and put it on the counter. Mrs. Dsaid, "It looks like we'll have Susie work up front." Susie pulled her kneesup against her chest, wrapped her arms around her knees and put her headdown. Mrs. D. didn't force her to work. About a minute later, Susie stoodup and started to move slowly towards the front board. Mrs. D. walkedover to her, hugged her, and said something quietly to her. Susiecontinued to move towards the front board until she was standing right infront. She then wrote a word on the front board in response to a questionfrom Mrs. D.

During another observation, Mrs. D. asked Susie if she would like to work with thehelper in the classroom (the Whole Schooling researcher) and Susie started to run backand forth across the room. Mrs. D. said to Susie, “When we fill out your blank folder,you’re not going to like what it says.” Susie stopped running around the room and satdown to work. Mrs. D. explained to the observer that the blank folder was a disciplinesystem they used to help Susie work on her behavior. The blank folder was a way todocument how Susie was doing in the classroom so the information could becommunicated to Susie’s mom. In this way, Susie’s mom helped to reinforce thebehavior the teachers were helping Susie to work on in the classroom.

In this same classroom, teachers also used other subtle strategies for helping students tostay on track. During an observation of naptime, Mrs. H. stepped out into the hall for aminute. As soon as Mrs. H. was out of the room, several students got up off of theirmats, moved about the room and talked to other students. When Mrs. H. walked backinto the room, she calmly asked students to move back onto their mats. She then put aSesame Street record on the record player. The students who had been moving aroundlay down on their mats, quieted down and listened to the music. The music workedwonderfully to calm students down and gave those students who were not able to sleepsomething to which they could listen.

Another strategy used by Gilman teachers to support behavior in positive, proactive wayswas to discuss appropriate behavior before starting an instructional activity. Forexample, in an observation of a first grade classroom, students were getting ready to work

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together in teams to complete an instructional activity. Before the activity started theclassroom teacher had this discussion with the students:

Mrs. U.: What is a rule for being a team?Student: Work together.Mrs. U.: Yes, it is important to work together. What's another rule forbeing a team?Student: You try to win.Mrs. U.: Is it really important to win?Student: Talk to the other people in your group.Mrs. U.: Yes, you have to talk to the other people in your group. What isone other rule for working in a group?Student: No yellingMrs. U.: Yes, this is an inside game and you need to talk quietly.

After the review of how to work in teams, the teacher then randomly grouped students inteams and they worked together on the instructional task.

Principle 5: PARTNERINGThe last principle of Whole Schooling is Partnering. This principle requires that schoolstaff build genuine collaborative relationships within the school and with families and thecommunity. It further promotes that schools take an active role in strengthening thecommunity as well as providing guidance to engage students, parents, teachers and othersin decision-making and the direction of learning and school activities. GilmanElementary School exemplifies this principle in several ways that will be describedbelow.

Finding 1: Joining together with families, community members anduniversity faculty mutually benefits all.Several of the ways that Gilman Elementary School joined together with families andcommunity members have already been discussed under previous findings. Theseinclude welcoming parents and other community members into the classrooms to serve asvolunteer helpers, the “Youth Tutoring Youth” program, and the special Grandparent’sDay program sponsored by the second grade teachers and students. One explanation forthe success Gilman Elementary School experienced in reaching out to the communitywas the fact that they employed a community education director to coordinate activitieswith community members. In an interview with the principal, he explained that thecommunity education director helped recruit and coordinate volunteers to help tutorstudents during and after school. The principal also mentioned that no admission ischarged for school events in the Gilman district to encourage more community membersto attend. The principal said, “I think when people come in and see some of the goodthings that are happening, they will feel more positive about the school.”

In addition to the community education director, Gilman Elementary School also has aParent Resource Center. Of the Parent Resource Center, a parent said, “They areconstantly sending out newsletters. I have gotten books on ADD and discipline. I took

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an Internet class and a basic computer class through the Parent Resource Center.” As thisparent indicates, the Parent Resource Center has books and other materials on topics ofinterest to parents and offers technology classes to parents. Gilman Elementary School’sspecial education director, who also helped to coordinate the Parent Resource Center,explained that in addition to the services already mentioned, the center was going to offeropen computer lab time in the afternoon where parents could come in to use thecomputers and/or bring their children in to work together on computers. The specialeducation director said, “We have been trying to get feedback from parents on what theywant in their new center. If parents take advantage of it, it is just going to be wonderful.”

One final way that Gilman Elementary School reached out to the community was relatedto the Wisconsin Education Association Council’s Great Schools Program. Mrs. H., oneof the teachers involved, explained that WEAC sent two people to Gilman to work withthem on the Great Schools program. Mrs. H. said that she and several other teachers sentout eighty invitations to parents, business people, administrators, school board people,ministers, and other community members. She said that out of the eighty people,eighteen showed up to talk about what they wanted in their school. Mrs. H. said that theattendees were told not to worry about financing. Mrs. H. said some of the things thatpeople wanted were low class sizes and having the playground finished. She said one ofthe participants specifically mentioned the Gilman Reading Model when they were askedwhat they definitely wanted to keep in their school. The Great Schools program is aunique way to reach out to the community and Gilman Elementary School administrationand faculty are encouraged to continue to nurture the strong connection they have madewith the Gilman community.

Finding 2: Collaboration and Co-Teaching strengthens the overallschool community and learning experiences.Many of the ways Gilman teachers collaborated with one another have been discussed atlength in previous findings. These include the teaming of general education teacherswithin and across grade levels, the teaming of general and special educators and theteaming of general education teachers with the teachers of specials like art, music andphysical education. The various ways Gilman teachers collaborated helped to lowerpupil to teacher ratios, provided additional supports for students with and withoutdisabilities, and facilitated the development and implementation of integrated/thematicinstruction. Interviews revealed how committed Gilman teachers were to collaboratingwith one another. One teacher said, “We are really sold on all of the teachers using thesame lesson plan where we are all using the same terminology and we have kids involvedin a lot of different activities. We integrate everything and vary things so that all the kidscan learn in some way.” Another teacher, who was relatively new to the classroom said,“Sometimes I find I am not getting through to some of my kids and I will talk to theperson I team with and she will come in and work with kids on it. I like to get otherteachers’ suggestions. The other teacher has a lot of experience so she has a lot of ideas.”

Another way that Gilman teachers collaborated was through curriculum team meetings.Curriculum teams consisted of teachers across grade levels and were set up to examinedifferent areas of the curriculum to help make decisions about future directions in that

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area. For example, one of the teachers explained that Gilman currently had a writingteam looking at writing curriculum and evaluation for the following school year. Theteacher said that the curriculum team develops strategies and makes plans for otherteachers to implement. The teacher said of the curriculum team meetings, “There is a lotof conversation going on. We are still very child focused. We try to make sure that thechildren are at the center of all of our decisions.”

In addition to the formal ways that Gilman teachers collaborated, teachers were alsoobserved working together and supporting one another informally. During oneobservation, Mrs. R., a second grade teacher, explained to the observer that the guidancecounselor was going to be working with her class during the next period and she wasgoing to go down to the computer lab with the other second grade teacher. Mrs. R.explained that the other teacher was not comfortable teaching in the computer lab byherself yet and she was going to go down to provide technological and moral support.The many ways that Gilman teachers collaborated with one another both formally andinformally provided many benefits for the students and created a positive, supportiveworking environment for the teachers.

Finding 3: Parents and students feel supported by school staff.Observations and teacher and parent interviews revealed that Gilman Elementary Schooladministration and teachers reach out to parents in many different ways. Some of theseinclude phone calls, notes, district and classroom newsletters, parent conferences andreport cards. In addition, teachers shared that they sent special attachments to reportcards that explained what themes had been addressed in their classrooms and describedsome of the projects that went along with the themes. Of these summaries one teachersaid, “Sometimes parents say they just can’t believe how much information the kids comehome with. I think parents still think kindergarten was the way it was when they wereyoung.” A parent gives her perspective on the same issue when asked how the schoolcommunicates with her, “They send a lot of notes home. Every once in a while they senda note home explaining what they are working on and telling parents how they can help.I really think they do a good job with that.”

Gilman Elementary School also has a Parent Resource Center, which was described in aprevious section. The Parent Resource Center puts out its own newsletter, providesbooks and other materials of interest to parents and offers technology classes. Additionalactivities involving parents are the Parent Teacher Organization. The school alsosponsors a reading lock-in every fall where parents come in and read to their children.Pizza is served at the event and books are given away. The kindergarten and first gradeteachers held a special math night for parents where they learned how they could workwith their children on math skills at home. The second grade teachers invite parents tocome in for a “Meet the Teachers Day,” which gives parents an opportunity to get toknow the teachers better. In this way, parents might be more likely to contact theirchild’s teacher if they had a question or concern.

Parents expressed a strong appreciation for the caring attitudes of teachers in GilmanSchool. One parent said, “Everybody acts like they care about their job and care about

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the mission. They care about each group of kids that moves through.” Another parentdescribed what she appreciated about the teachers and atmosphere at Gilman ElementarySchool, “Everyone is like a family and they know you and they like you and they askhow they can help you. If you have a problem, they are prompt with helping. They arewilling to make you feel like you’re doing a good job as a parent.” And finally, a parentwho had herself been a student at Gilman Elementary School said, “I have a lot of goodmemories here. It’s just a real nice atmosphere to be in. The teachers work well with thekids.”

While parents expressed appreciation for the many ways administrators and teachers atGilman Elementary School reach out to them and support their children, one parent raisedconcerns about the state of the playground. For much of the time that the WholeSchooling researchers were observing in Gilman Elementary School, the school wasundergoing major construction. For the duration of the construction, the playground wasdismantled and students were not able to play on it. The parent who brought up the topicof the playground explained why she was concerned when she said, “The kids play on theblacktop and they are always getting hurt. The swings are lying on the grass. I keepasking the principal when the playground is going to be completed and he says when thebuilding is completed. Now the building is completed and the playground still isn’tfinished.” Since the playground issue was also mentioned by teachers and communitymembers, this is an area Gilman Elementary School administration and staff may want toaddress.

ConclusionsGilman Elementary School clearly demonstrates aspects of all the Whole SchoolingPrinciples and is working hard to include students with disabilities into the school’sgeneral education classrooms. The administration and staff are encouraged to maintaintheir successful efforts with inclusion and to explore new ways to provide teachers andstudents with a voice in decision-making, include all students, teach and adapt fordiversity, build community and reach out to parents. They are also encouraged to buildon their success with the Gilman Reading Model through ongoing assessment, training offaculty in the model and outreach to other schools who might be interested.

Thank you to Mr. Schley and all of the teachers, parents and students at GilmanElementary School for their cooperation and support for this project. A special thanks toBob Mechelke for serving as our contact person at Gilman School.